Jeff Buckley Fans, Rejoice! An Album of Unheard Covers Will Be Released in March

Jeff Buckley released only one album, Grace, before his death in 1997 at age 30. But his music lived on and became popular posthumously after his private studio recordings and covers, including his hit take on Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” continued to be released over the next two decades. Longtime Buckley fans will be thrilled to learn an album of unheard covers will be released in March.

Much like Harper Lee’s recently published novel, Go Set a Watchman, and Dr. Seuss’s recently discovered long-lost books, the 10 songs on the new Buckley album were unearthed after record label Sony Legacy was going through a vault of the artist’s material in preparation for a 20th anniversary reissue of Grace. “We quickly realized how remarkable they were,” Sony Legacy president Adam Block said to The Guardian. “They offer an incredible, rare glimpse of an artist, alone, in the sacred space that is the studio. There’s an intimacy and an honesty to the performances that’s literally breathtaking.”

The album, titled You and I, consists mostly of covers Buckley is said to have given his producers as an idea of what he wanted his next album to sound like. (He was in the middle of recording My Sweetheart the Drunk when he drowned in the Mississippi River.) You and I will feature two Smiths covers, a tribute to Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman,” and his take on Sly and the Family Stone’s song “Everyday People,” which premiered this morning on NPR.

You can hear Buckley’s version of “Everyday People,” now available on Spotify, below.